Well Played 2.0: Video Games, Value and Meaning - OpenLibra

Interestingly, it doesn’t rewind directly to the moment he released the
sands from the hourglass, but all the way back to prior to the invasion of
Farah’s city. While this doesn’t fit seamlessly with the narrative, it does
make some sense in terms of the experience of the game. You’re back at
the start and the Prince wakes up back in camp with his Father prior to
the invasion of the city where Farah and the Vizier live. He is back in his
pristine outfit, but he has the dagger of time. He sneaks into the palace
up to the terrace where the player starts the game. It’s now apparent that
this is the terrace into Farah’s room (who at this moment in time has never
met the Prince). The Prince enters and offers to tell her (you) a story…
Ludic Narrans
The story told is of the game you have just played through (which
now has never happened yet). This moment brings to fruition the game’s
narrative throughline and subtext of honor and fantastic redemption, as
opposed to the honor and glory the Prince hoped for initially.
Throughout, you, as the Prince, are trying to atone for the mistake you
made by releasing the sands of time and also the mistake of honor for
glory, instead of the true honor of good deeds. You literally get to turn
back time and erase this big mistake, while you were also able to rewind
time throughout the game in order to fix your little gameplay mistakes.
This also harkens back to the importance of stories as seen with
Scheherazade in the classic tales in A Thousand and One Arabian
Nights. The denouement is now quickly rushing toward the conclusion
of the narrative and the investment stage is firmly engaged as a successful
end seems extremely likely. All of the little units of storytelling asides
become more than just little affectations and show that the whole experience
has been the Prince telling his story to Farah (you). The start of the
game was actually the Prince walking in to tell her this story (see Figure
17).
Figure 17.
Scene from the beginning/end of the game (Ubisoft 2003) from
MobyGames.com.
It’s a wonderful moment of frisson as you realize that your time with
the game (around 10-12 hours of playing) has been whirled away within
the context of the story. The interactive experience is inverted as
everything you’ve done up to this point has no longer happened. Parenthetically,
for those familiar with the movie, The Usual Suspects, this reminds
me of the revealing twist at the end when everything you’ve just
seen is called into question. Not to completely spoil the movie, but the
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